147) Chapter 21. ......Huh? (6)

And so, the weekend arrived.

Contrary to appearances, all of the girls who shared a dormitory with me were actually quite diligent and hardworking—

Hmm, no, actually, I’m not sure whether it’s fair to say “contrary to appearances.”

After spending so much time with Soi and Chae-yi, I’m honestly a little unclear on what exactly qualifies as an appearance that “looks like someone who plays around.”

I mean, if you think about it, I wear pretty revealing clothes too, don’t I? Not because it’s particularly my preference, though.

Soi might look like she’d be a wild kid because she has blonde hair and wears short skirts, but that hair color is just her natural color, and as for short skirts, plenty of girls wear those because they’re fashionable.

Chae-yi’s pink hair is also just her natural hair color. If someone looked at those two and said, “They look like they play around a lot,” wouldn’t that be judging people based on appearance?

Hyeonji’s blue hair is also natural. And in Hyeonji’s case, aside from her blue hair, her expression is always serious.

......Well, anyway.

Even so, Jihye and Mirae had practically jumped in shock when I first spoke to them, and Jinwoo had also been terribly scared of us at first, so I suppose we must look that way on the surface.

Even though we looked like we’d be the type to play around, we were still fairly diligent people.

That said, being diligent doesn’t mean we don’t sleep in on weekends.

Since close friends shared the same room, somehow everyone’s guard relaxed a little every Friday evening.

After studying until around ten o’clock and coming back to the room, we’d all lie on the same bed and chatter away.

Though by “chatter away,” it was usually Soi and Chae-yi doing the talking, while I stayed stiff and motionless because I still couldn’t get used to the sensation no matter how much time passed, and I didn’t want to accidentally touch somewhere inappropriate while moving around.

Whether she was conscious of it or not, Soi would always press her body right up against mine, and every time she spoke, my ear would tickle.

Naturally, whenever Chae-yi spoke from the other side, my ear tickled too.

The things they talked about were completely ordinary things—what happened at school, what food tasted good, complaints about game updates getting delayed, things that truly didn’t matter at all.

And yet.

Their voices, lowered ever so slightly, carried a strange sensuality.

“......”

And then there was Hyeonji’s expression, which became increasingly complicated with each passing day.

Whenever the three of us lay together on the same bed, before long Hyeonji would drag over a chair and stare down at us.

Was she trying to say she wanted to join us?

But how would that even work? The only empty space was the middle.

It wasn’t as though we could have Hyeonji lie on top of me while sleeping.

No, Hyeonji surely wasn’t seriously considering something that ridiculous.

She was probably just, as a member of the disciplinary committee, yes, that’s right, thinking about what she should do about the three of us.

......

Anyway, after falling asleep while half-intoxicated by Soi and Chae-yi’s body warmth, I woke up to find it was already ten in the morning.

The time we’d promised to meet Jinwoo.

Gasping, I hurriedly sat upright.

Soi and Chae-yi were already gone.

The sound of running water was coming from the shower room, so one of them seemed to be washing up already.

Then the other one had probably gone downstairs to grab some yogurt or something for breakfast.

“Ah.”

Hearing a sound from beside me, I turned my head and met Hyeonji’s eyes.

For some reason, she was bent over awkwardly with her head poking into the lower bunk.

I wouldn’t say her face was extremely close, but aside from when she buried herself against my chest, Hyeonji normally never leaned this close to me.

Considering the average distance she usually kept, by Hyeonji-and-me standards this was practically nose-to-nose.

“Uh, good morning.”

Had she been trying to wake me up because I wasn’t getting out of bed?

Well, Hyeonji was the most diligent among us.

“......Y-you’re awake.”

Perhaps startled because I’d suddenly sat up so abruptly, Hyeonji withdrew both hands that had been reaching forward slightly and straightened her back.

Ahem, ahem.

Seeing her awkwardly clear her throat, she must have been embarrassed.

Well, it would be a little embarrassing if the person you were trying to wake suddenly opened their eyes and shot upright.

Come to think of it, if things had gone wrong, we might have bumped heads.

I let out a sigh of relief.

Then immediately sucked in another sharp breath and hurriedly climbed out of bed.

Looking outside the dormitory window, I could already see a tiny figure pacing back and forth in the distance.

Even from this far away, it was clearly Jinwoo wearing a deeply worried expression.

I quickly picked up my phone and sent a message.

[Coming out now.]

The moment Jinwoo checked her phone, her face brightened so visibly that I could tell even from this distance.

She could probably be used as a lighthouse.

I let out a small breath.

*

Officially, the reason was “studying.”

But people’s hearts are terribly dishonest, aren’t they?

It’s not like we hadn’t been studying during the week.

At the very least, we studied diligently with the others at cafés inside the Academy until ten at night, and whenever we couldn’t finish, we’d return to our dorm room and continue for another hour or two before sleeping.

It wasn’t like we were cramming at the last minute. We regularly reviewed and prepared in advance too.

So wouldn’t it feel a little unfair to spend the entire weekend studying again?

It’s not like we planned to play all day.

We were just going to go out for a bit, have lunch, maybe grab some snacks, then go home, greet our parents, and get dinner from them.

Incidentally, we had already learned one major lesson last time.

If we dressed Jinwoo up as a girl and wandered around, then ran into someone we knew, explaining the situation became incredibly awkward.

That girl had probably only pretended to believe us anyway.

So this time, we simply walked around openly with Jinwoo.

After all, we were all around the same age.

There probably weren’t many people who would immediately assume a single boy had a whole bunch of girls hanging around him.

More likely, they’d assume one of the girls was his girlfriend, or simply think, “Oh, I guess a boy and some girls happened to become friends.”

Fortunately, we didn’t run into anyone we knew.

As for Jinwoo’s reaction this time, when she wasn’t dressed as a girl like last time—

“H-hehe.”

Apparently she loved it.

As though simply hanging out with friends was one of life’s greatest joys.

Even though she’d come out early and waited for us all morning, she barely talked about herself and just kept smiling happily.

Even Soi and Chae-yi, who had initially been extremely wary of Jinwoo, seemed to run out of things to criticize whenever they saw her acting like that. These days they didn’t even bother picking fights anymore.

“......”

Only Hyeonji had been wearing a complicated expression ever since yesterday.

I considered asking her about it.

But it felt awkward to do that with everyone else present.

I was aware of it too.

The people around me weren’t friends with each other.

They were friends with me.

Soi and Chae-yi at least bickered enough to seem friendly.

But Jinwoo seemed to make Soi, Chae-yi, and Hyeonji all somewhat uncomfortable.

And Hyeonji, in her own way, also seemed somewhat uncomfortable around Soi and Chae-yi.

“......”

Huh.

Then does that mean these girls are all gathered together simply because they like me?

Was I actually pretty popular?

“......What are you thinking about so hard?”

“W-what do you mean, what am I thinking about?”

Soi mercilessly pierced through my fantasy, making me flinch.

“You were sitting there with this completely foolish grin on your face.”

No, what do you mean a foolish grin?

It’s not like I’d gone around seducing anyone.

Sure, I’d been daydreaming a little earlier, but it was just a fantasy.

Hyeonji and Jinwoo had simply ended up not having many friends before becoming close to me.

“Ah, I wasn’t thinking about anything.”

“You weren’t thinking about anything? You make that kind of face without thinking about anything?”

......Huh?

“W-what kind?”

“You just smile at anyone and everyone like that, and then you keep trying to gather people around you. Right?”

Huh?

I have absolutely no idea what she’s talking about.

If I were capable of doing that, I’d already be the most popular person in school.

No, forget the school.

The entire province.

Actually, this was Seoul, so I’d probably be the most popular person in the entire Special Metropolitan City.

Though in reality, almost everyone in this country who remembered my name would think of the Witch first.

“Chae-yi, what do you think?”

“Yeah, I think she’s gotten a little arrogant lately.”

Arrogant?

Sure, I walk around with girls on both sides of me, but honestly, it’s not like I’m the one collecting them. Soi and Chae-yi just attach themselves to me on their own.

Still, I felt like the atmosphere would become awkward if I argued, so I just kept my mouth shut.

“Sigh. Though I guess that’s not really your fault.”

“Right, right. It’s not Rua’s fault.”

Chae-yi nodded in agreement with Soi.

No, seriously, what are you even talking about?

When I looked toward Hyeonji, she was staring at me with an even more serious expression than before.

Despite that expression, she didn’t actually say anything.

Which somehow made me even more uncomfortable.

As for Jinwoo...

She was just sitting there smiling foolishly at my face, making herself completely useless in this situation.

Hmm.

Looking at it this way, I really am surrounded by beautiful girls.

So why does it feel like the more girls gather around me, the more dangerous my situation becomes?

It’s not like I’m the protagonist of some harem story.

Feeling strangely conscious of Soi and Chae-yi’s reactions, I silently sipped from my drink through a straw and thought it over.

No answer came to me.

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Pub: 31 May 2026 04:40 UTC

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